Trump Hints at Years-Long U.S. Control of Venezuela Oil (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: President Trump and the new two-hour interview going in depth with the New York Times now on his take on, well, a lot, including on the Venezuela situation and where it heads now. President Trump was asked directly how long the United States will be in control of the country, Venezuela. His answer, only time will tell, further than saying the United States could be running Venezuela extracting oil from its reserves, quote, for years. And also the new plot twist. In the last 24 hours, the United States has seized two oil tankers linked to Venezuela, one loaded with roughly two million barrels of crude. The other was that oil tanker that the United States has been chasing for two weeks now. CNN's Elena Train is live at the White House with much more on this this morning. And what more are you learning about this interview? Elena.

[00:00:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was a fascinating interview, Kate. It went on for a few hours, the New York Times said. And look, some of what he said, particularly on this timeline, does match up with the reporting that we've been having and the conversations I'm having as well with people in the White House, which is essentially they do not have, Kate, a precise timeline for how long they want to be essentially controlling Venezuela's oil exports. And this does match up with as well with what we heard Trump administration officials laying out when they met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday, which is that they plan to be, you know, extracting oil essentially from Venezuela and kind of trying to control that entire operation indefinitely. That was the term that was used broadly, including by the Energy Secretary Chris Wright when he spoke in Miami yesterday. Now, look, I think there's obviously a lot of questions that this raises, particularly from Democratic lawmakers who, unlike their Republican counterparts, are arguing that they're fearful, essentially, that we are getting into a protracted intervention here in a foreign government that really is on questionable legal basis. And that's going to be the continued, I think, argument back and forth as we look ahead. Now, one of the other interesting things that the president told The New York Times is that he believes that the interim government right now in Caracas is doing everything that they need. And that's fascinating, because, of course, and you brought this up earlier, Kate, you know, a lot of people had thought and even some Republicans have been urging the president to try and lean on the opposition leaders, people like Marina – Karina – Maria Karina Machado in Venezuela, and try to prop them up through this entire process. Instead, what we've seen the administration do is lean on the interim government, specifically the acting president, Delsi Rodriguez, who is, of course, Maduro's former vice president, very much a part of that loyalist government to Maduro. And the president essentially said that they are giving him everything they need. And that's what they're looking for right now. They want cooperation with whoever is running Venezuela to meet their demands. And some of the demands that we've been reporting on yesterday are that they want Venezuela to sever economic ties and essentially kick out the United States' foreign adversaries from Venezuela. That's a huge deal, because these countries like China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, they had been propping up the Maduro government for years now, so that would be a very sharp turn. They also want Venezuela to partner exclusively with the United States when it comes to their oil sales. Now, we have to see how this is going to play out, of course, but it speaks to a broader goal that our sources are telling us that Trump is really focused on, which is he wants to really have the United States dominate influence in the Western Hemisphere. And that's what all of these steps are leading to. Now, a key thing I would point your attention to is what we're going to see happen at the White House here tomorrow, when the president meets with a number of oil companies as he tries to convince them to go into Venezuela, invest in rebuilding their energy infrastructure, something that many have argued is kind of a tall ask, given some of the implications and the uncertainty about where that industry is headed.

[00:04:00] Speaker 1: After classified briefings on Capitol Hill yesterday, lawmakers were divided about whether there is a plan.

[00:04:08] Speaker 3: There are a lot of questions from both Democrats and Republicans about what comes next, what the timeline is, and they basically refuse to answer any of those questions.

[00:04:17] Speaker 4: Did I hear a strategy? The answer is no. There's been no planning. Do you feel confident that there is a clear endgame? I do. I do.

[00:04:28] Speaker 1: This morning, we will see the first test of Congress's support for the president's intervention in Venezuela. The Senate is set to hold a vote on a War Powers Resolution to basically the vote would block further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. Joining me now, CNN Global Affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, there's so many things I want to ask you about today, about where things are developing in Venezuela. Trump said the United States is going to be there for years to come. You heard some of the senators, Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, came out saying that the plan that he heard, this three point plan or whatever, he called it insane. What are you hearing about the clarity or lack thereof in the point and the plan now?

[00:05:13] Speaker 5: Well, this is essentially the U.S. taking on a country like it took on Iraq or Afghanistan. And while it's not trying to remake the government, at least yet, if it wants to be able to extract resource profits and make it safe for U.S. companies to expand how they do business there, it's going to mean either co-opting everyone that's in power and hoping that they will on pass the profits, et cetera, and not somehow betray the Trump administration and that they also all remain in power. This is a place of a mosaic of competing factions where Rodriguez, the acting president, will possibly look weak and she'll present an opportunity for the defense minister, the minister of interior, et cetera. So a lot of drama ahead.

[00:06:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, to say the least, right. Something else that's coming out of this New York Times interview I found fascinating is what happened with Colombia's president. Trump's kind of stopped the interview to take an hour long call from the Colombian leader who Trump, remember, recently called a sick man and even kind of was like, I'm OK with with the military going in there as well. The new call that he just had was off the record, according to The New York Times. The New York Times then then said this about the call, that the call appeared to dissipate any immediate threat of U.S. military action. And Mr. Trump indicated he believed the decapitation of the Maduro regime had intimidated other leaders in the region to fall in line. Trump then said, then said on social media that he appreciated the call and the tone. What do you think this means?

[00:06:56] Speaker 5: Basically, the Colombian leader blinked. He had been more aggressive in social media, but this was a call to make nice because Latin American leaders, African leaders, European leaders, everyone is saying you don't know what Trump might do next and we have to placate him because the risk right now is high. It's like going.

[00:07:18] Speaker 1: Remember from the first term, the madman, the madman theory like this is feels like it's in practice, connected. Yeah. Yeah. Connected to this is Russia, something you and I have talked about for, well, now almost four years. And the shadow fleet that the Trump administration is trying to take out. One take on what's the connective tissue other than Russia kind of claimed that ship. One take from a former ambassador I had on yesterday was that taking the oil tankers isn't about the oil. It's about winning leverage over Russia and its war on Ukraine. And on that, Lindsey Graham is now saying that Donald Trump has at long last greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that they've been working on and that has 80 plus co-sponsors. Graham saying this, this bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin's war machine. This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India, Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides a financing for Putin's bloodbath against Ukraine. How big is this, Kim, in that long negotiation and where things stand when it comes to the war and those relationships? How big is this if this vote does take place next week, as he hopes?

[00:08:38] Speaker 5: It feels like Trump has flip-flopped in his approach to Russia, that he is now taking the strongman approach as opposed to being talked out of almost everything he had previously planned in conversations with Putin. So we'll have to watch this space. The Russians have reacted in a very sort of banal way to the seizure of the tanker. There hasn't been huge headlines in Russian media attacking the U.S. for it. It seems like everyone's worried. I had a Trump official tell me once, it's great to have someone like President Trump to negotiate for, because I can go to world leaders and sit in a room saying, you know, I'm the reasonable one. You don't know what he might do. And the negotiator found that to be an asset. Right now, everyone in the world is saying they don't know what he might do. Please give us a reasonable way out.

[00:09:32] Speaker 1: Yeah. And this sanctions bill, if approved and put in place, that is giving some huge new leverage for the president to use. It's great to see you, Kim. Thank you so much for coming in.